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Our Journey

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen From Shamanism to Christianity in 1922

‘Nobody will want to believe us, because our disaster is the disaster of the entire Civilized world.'- Ignacy Schipper writing from Majdanek

‘Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equals' - Charles Darwin

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In 2002 Atanarjuat the Fast Runner brought Inuit reality to
worldwide audiences with an award-winning story of love, murder,
revenge and forgiveness from the ancient past. Called ‘the first
national cinema of the 21st century,’ the film inspired audiences with
a new look at the human condition from the Inuit point of view. But a
thousand years after Atanarjuat out-ran his enemies, where did the Fast
Runner finally end up?

In The Journals of Knud Rasmussen the makers of Fast Runner
dramatize conversion to Christianity in 1922 of Avva, Igloolik’s last
shaman and his family, again from the Inuit point of view. Times have
changed, and the Fast Runner has ended up in church.

For people whose survival rests on a delicate balance among human,
animal and spirit souls, the loss of belief is an unnerving story.
Revealing in its own narrative language the depth of the belief system
lost, and its catastrophic impact on the rich and sensual family life
that depended on it, The Journals exposes the cosmic disparity between Aboriginal and European cultural memories of a shared past. Like Fast Runner, The Journals takes another look at the human condition, but closer to unresolved conflicts of our own time.

In today’s world, the dual audience of Aboriginal and non-Native
viewers stare across a sullen divide of centuries of demeaning
stereotypes. In this film Native people think, a cultural identity
rarely depicted in popular media. Seeing Inuit undeniably as sentient
beings, The Journals sets in motion a non-violent opportunity
for recognition and healing between two different audiences surprised
or even unsettled at finding common ground.

Opening the Toronto International Film Festival in the language and voice of the colonized transforms The Journals
into an historic national honor: the first film invited to carry
forward the rich belief system of Aboriginal people to an Opening Night
audience of Canada’s most powerful and privileged. The duality of this
event continues through the film’s 35mm cinema release by using the new
potential of digital HD to bring The Journals at the same time to audiences in remote northern Aboriginal communities.

A group of Nunavut elders travel to five museums in North America to see and identify artifacts, tools and clothing collected from their Inuit ancestors. Directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Bernadette Dean.